Need proof of God's existence? Hurt a little. That should do it.

Theologian C.S. Lewis once said finding God when you’re happy and everything is rosy is easy. Trying to find him when you need him and when everything isn’t going quite so well, though, it can sometimes feel as though he is slapping you in the face.

I understand that feeling. I just don’t necessarily agree with all of it.

God is most visible when we are in pain. There is no better opportunity to see proof in his existence than when we are hurting. You just have to know where to look.

Lately there has been much hurt in my little corner of the world, which is no different than the millions of other little corners of the world.  Through all the hurt and suffering I have seen of late, there is God, showing himself in the form of grace; using people to walk his walk.

A good friend loses a daughter, only 28 years old, to a horrific form of cancer. Kerry Faudree spoke to a crowded St. Ann’s Church last Friday during her daughter’s farewell with a poise and courage that could have only been the hand of God intervening. She spoke of the grace that as been bestowed upon her and her family through the acts of kindness and the huge community group hug given them. And she spoke of how not only her daughter Kristen but anyone who fights and ultimately dies of cancer does not lose that battle. They win it. Seeing the struggles of cancer patients at M.D. Anderson for several months, Kerry and her family saw only the faces and the fights of winners. “There are no losers among those who fight this horrible disease,” she said.

Sunday morning, 14-year-old Tanner Seedig, a classmate and friend of my son’s at Lee Freshman High School, was killed when he was thrown from a vehicle near Sweetwater. Almost immediately word began to spread through emails, instant messages, MySpace pages and maybe even through the old fashion telephone.  By late Sunday, a page in Tanner’s memory had been designed and posted on the Internet by grieving friends and students. Their way of dealing with loss. Their way of spreading grace that could have only come from God.

A Texas family of seven drove off a bridge last week in northern Mexico, near Presidio. Back home in Irving, family members that had days earlier tried to rent a house and had paid a deposit received the news and told the homeowner they had to back out; their money must be redirected from a new home to funeral expenses for the family, who had been in Mexico to help establish a church. They were excused from their deposit by a kind and forgiving home owner.

God’s grace. All it can be.

A close friend recently told me his daughter left home. One day she was there, happy and full of joy like she had been for every morning of her entire life; the next day she was gone. There had been a disagreement about a boyfriend. At 11 at night, her father, my friend, heard the door shut. And he and his wife’s world changed at the sound of the closing door. They were riddled with grief, puzzled at what they had done wrong, in total question of their ability to parent and incredibly lonely at the absence of someone who had been such a huge part of their life for so long and who had seemed and acted so happy through all of it. “It’s almost as if she is dead,” my friend told me.

While the daughter might not have literally died, the reaction by this family’s community of friends and church was as though she had. He told me the support he and his family received was indescribable. Humbling.

It all sounds a lot like three years ago when my mother died. None of us in the family had been through such pain before and losing a mother was, while expected at the time, still very difficult to deal with.

On the day of her funeral as I looked out across those gathered to pay their respects I saw the faces of people I hadn’t seen in 25 years. Old friends who had driven 300 miles or flown 1,200 miles to be there. It was a site and an experience I will never forget; to know that people care so much. People are good deep down. The good on this earth far outweighs the bad.

God’s grace.

All it can be.

Comments

[Scott]

Wow. Just "Wow". Thanks, Jimmy! Great stuff.

[Craig]

"If I were to say, "God, why me?" about the bad things, then I should have said, "God, why me?" about the good things that happened in my life."
Arthur Ashe

Jimmy, after receiving communion at Kristen's funeral, I watched Kerry as the rest of the congregation came forward. She was intently staring at Jesus on the cross on the back wall of the church. She looked as though she was in deep communication with Him, and the only way I can describe the look on Kerry's face is "Grace".

[Jimmy Patterson]

Scott ... thanks much, bud.

Craig: I saw that look, too. Chill bringer onner. If anyone can open a line of communications with Jesus, Kerry would definitely be one of the first ...

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